Not much to say here except that we found out that Daryl, shown at left so diligently cutting, worked mostly with Dremmel.  I, on the other hand, had been cutting with hand tools. The contrast would help a woodcut this big, we decided. He has good control of the Dremmel and comes up with good transitions between his contour line approach and the white and black areas. I tend to "let the chisel speak" as I cut, using the characteristic carved marks as elements of the design. We both like espresso coffee, the stronger the better. Today was a "2-pot" day. Bustelo, for those who care, just brew it regularly on any ol' American coffee brew thingie; sugar to taste.

Two proofs of the progress. The image is coming together beautifully. We have two areas, one at the top and one at the bottom that will transcend "our sides" and serve to connect the two worlds.
We are also using the contrast between the chisel marks and the dremmel marks to connect the whole print. Some of the elements on both sides will be treated with the chisel style, as on the LEFT photo. Nearly all the figures will receive the contour line treatment of the Dremmel, as in the RIGHT photo.

Day 10
The Monster Gets Blessed
November 11 or so, we switched gears a bit. Daryl had a big shin-dig with the UNLV faculty (they choose to call it a studio walk-through for all graduate students). They had to see the monster woodcut, didn't they?
So we drove the thing to his studio. They loved it, of course. Lots of academic blah blah blah followed, among the comments the contrasting styles, the nice composition... one thing that struck me was that the emphasis on doing something "important" or something that isn't being done by anyone else. They liked the narrative quality of the imagery, too, as opposed to some more graphic imagery that has been done with large prints. Everyone wants to see it printed, as do we.

Day 11
More Cuttin' and Paper Choices
November 15th. We left "Mobious" (nicknamed by Worf) in Daryl's studio so next time we met we cut over there. Oh, I forgot to say we both like Latin music, so we listened to that and had a good cutting day, almost can feel the finished product. I had done some research on paper choices, turns out there are some:

• Rives de Lin comes in 50" x 20 yard rolls. It is a spongy, chunky paper with a lot of tooth, probably more suitable for drawing but it feels and looks so beautiful. Cost is $175.00/roll.
• Stonehenge White comes in 52" x 10 or 20 yard rolls. It is a good solid printmaking paper but not as exciting as Rives de Lin. Much cheaper, the 20 yard rolls are just $100.00. This will be a good choice if the Rives de Lin proves unsuitable for printmaking with vehicles.
• Lenox 100 comes in 50" x 20 yard rolls for under $100.00. It is the smoothest and the least exciting paper but tried and true and about the color of the background of this page.
• We discussed making a couple of sheets of paper ourselves. This may still be a possibility.
• We will also probably print a couple of prints on your standard basic linen sheet and maybe on canvas, which comes as big as you want it.

More on the experiments after Thanksgiving obligatory vacations. We both have to play son and daughter...
I hate it when life gets in the way of art!

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